Gunboat Diplomacy Returns: US Seizes Oil Tanker Off Venezuela

Update (1518ET):

President Trump confirmed to Bloomberg that U.S. forces intercepted and seized a tanker near Venezuela's coast, saying further information will be provided soon.

*   *.  *

Gunboat diplomacy was on full display Wednesday afternoon after Bloomberg reported that U.S. forces intercepted and seized a sanctioned Venezuelan oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. This move underscores the Trump administration's Monroe-2.0 posturing as Washington seeks to reassert control over the Western Hemisphere after years of neglect.

Bloomberg cited sources who did not disclose the tanker's name or the general area where U.S. military forces seized the vessel.

The move here is a foreign policy tactic known as gunboat diplomacy. It's where the U.S. military has stationed warships, jets, bombers, and troops that are to push the Maduro regime into complying with U.S. demands.

On Tuesday, Trump told Politico that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's "days are numbered" ...

Trump was asked whether the U.S. could send in troops on the ground. The president said, "I don't comment on that."

"I wouldn't say that one way or the other," he said, going on to criticize Maduro.

Polymarket odds for "US x Venezuela military engagement by March 31, 2026" surged on the news...

Simultaneously, the Pentagon has ramped up strikes on drug-trafficking vessels in waters near Venezuela and Colombia, killing at least 80 in the process. The Trump administration is hell-bent on dismantling the command-and-control structures of narco-trafficking routes that funnel illicit drugs into the U.S. and have contributed to the drug-death catastrophe that kills 100,000 Americans per year.

*Developing...